Ether Prices Just Hit a New 2017 High
Ether prices surged on 14th February, pushing higher amid a strong pickup in trading volume and a leveraged market.
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Ether, the digital currency that powers the smart contract-based blockchain platform ethereum, rose to its highest price of the year today.
In total, the cryptocurrency surged close to 20% on digital currency exchange Poloniex against both USDT and BTC during today's session, rising to as much as $13.40 for a gain of 18.7% from the opening price.
Ether enjoyed even stronger gains relative to larger cryptocurrency bitcoin, as ETH/BTC reached 0.0135 BTC, a 19.5% increase for the day.
Analysis shows the combination of a strong pickup in trading volume combined with a highly leveraged market helped intensify gains.
ETH/USD's 24-hour trading trading volume surpassed $40m on CoinMarketCap during the session, a contrast to a high of $8m the day before.
Poloniex data painted a similar picture, as ETH/BTC trading volume reached nearly 50,000 ETH early in the 14th February session after rising to only as much as 16,725 ETH the day before.
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One factor that coincided with the rise in ether prices included a decline in the short interest in the ETH/BTC pair, according to data provided by leveraged digital currency trading platform Whaleclub.
While the market for this cryptocurrency pair was 65% short on 13th February, this figure had fallen to 50% on 14th February.
ETH is not a highly liquid market, and this could have helped accelerated the digital currency’s sharp price increases, analysts said.
Another development that may have helped push ether prices higher was a 13th February report indicating that major banks JP Morgan and Banco Santander had joined a still-secretive initiative called Enterprise Ethereum said to focus on the enterprise uses of the ethereum protocol.
Analysts further credited a delayed reaction to the news as a possible impetus for the price increase.
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